Katinka

Dora Chapma 1911-95 Painter, silk-screen printer, potter and art teacher, was born at Mount Barker (SA) on 24 March 1911. She won a scholarship to the Adelaide School of Arts and studied in 1936-41 under Marie Tuck,Dorrit Black, Leslie Wilkie, Louis McCubbin and Ivor Hele. She joined the United Arts Club where students could sketch from life. From 1935 she exhibited with the Royal South Australian Society of Arts (RSASA) and was elected an associate member while still a student in 1941 she won the RSASA Portrait Prize. The following year she joined the army, where she lectured in the Education Section until 1945 as well as establishing a Fine Art Print Library and organising an art exhibition of work by army personnel. After the war Chapman and the Sydney artist James Cant co-founded the Studio of Realist Art (SORA) in Sydney she became its secretary, gave drawing lessons and established a library at SORA’s premises and organised and participated in SORA exhibitions (Marjory Penglase). She and Cant married in 1946. In 1950 they went to London and remained there for five years, also visiting France and Italy. They returned to Sydney, but a year later moved permanently to Adelaide. Chapman lectured at the SA School of Art from 1958 to 1969 and from time to time afterwards although officially retired. She was also an art critic for the Adelaide Advertiser during these years. In 1961 she was awarded the Melrose Prize for portraiture. After her retirement she began to produce serigraphs like The Girl With A Long Nose(1970, NGA) and Katinka(1973, p.c.), and silk-screen printing has remained a major interest. Dora Chapman died in Adelaide on 15 May 1995. McCulloch, McCulloch’s Encyclopedia of Australian Art. Germaine, Max.Artists and Galleries of Australia, Germaine, Max.A Dictionary of Women Artists Campbell, Australian Watercolour Painters